Commonwealth nations are pressing King Charles for some form of reparations for slavery. This is a question that isn’t going away. Predictably, outraged online right-wingers are outraged about this. But there are really two separate questions: should Britain pay reparations for slavery? And, if so, how? The first question should be the easy one. Britain … Read more
I wrote yesterday about the growth of prison labour in the US and the impact it was having on the US jobs market. I received quite a lot of messages and comments about the 13th Amendment to the US constitution. The 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments are know as the Reconstruction Amendments because they were … Read more
Anne Widdecombe announced her arrival in the European Parliament this week with a speech that made a spectacularly ill judged comparison between Brexit and the abolition of slavery. Widdecombe’s views on slavery, the British Empire and the last few hundred years of British history maybe eccentric and unpleasant, but she isn’t the only person with … Read more